During
my last semester of teachers college, I had a professor mention that he always
tries to incorporate an oral section into his written tests in the math
classroom. He would bring students up one by one, and have them complete one
section of the test verbally. At first I thought this idea was crazy, but the
more I thought about it I realized that a lot of students would actually really
benefit from this in the math classroom. I cannot remember a time in any of my
high school or university math classes where we had to orally present our
findings or understandings. However, I was not complaining because I tend to do
better when I write my answers down rather than vocalizing them. Nonetheless,
this is not the case for all learners and some students would do much better explaining
their answer and thought process out loud rather than writing it down. This
puts these types of learners at a huge disadvantage in the math classroom and
may even discourage them from continuing to take Mathematics in the future
since other classes such as English or French may better appeal to their learning
style. Throughout my tutoring experiences I have seen this first hand. When I
first started tutoring one of my clients, I was not quite sure what to do
because at the end of the tutoring session she seemed very prepared for the
test, however she never ended up doing as well as I thought she could do.
During the session I would quiz her on the content and ask her to verbally
describe the steps she would take and she would be able to communicate this perfectly.
However, she would then tell me that she was not quite sure how to put this
down into words on the test. Maybe there are other students out there that
would benefit from taking an oral rather than written test? How will we know if
we don’t try! Plus, you’ll be helping your students develop their communication
skills, which will be setting them up for success in their post-secondary
lives.
What do you think, would you incorporate an oral exam into the math classroom? What are some pros and cons of using an assessment such as this?
Hey Danielle,
ReplyDeleteI really like this idea! I think that the pros of this technique are, as you stated, that students who have stronger verbal communication skills but maybe weaker written skills have a chance to communicate their thinking with ease. I think it also gives the teacher an opportunity to look at how the student approaches a problem and thinks it through. I wonder would they be marking a communication mark here?
The cons I see are that it logistically would take up a good chunk of time. Sometimes the teacher would need to circulate to ensure that those writing the test aren't cheating or talking. I know from my elementary days I would have to circulate and students would start to stir if I sat in one place.
Hi Danielle,
ReplyDeleteI think this is a great idea! In my experience, so many students understand math concepts during practice or in class activities, but when they get to a formal written test they are unable to perform in the same way. This could be due to a lot of factors such as anxiety. Giving the option of oral exams opens up for differentiated instruction, and allows all types of learners to be successful. This is something I will consider trying in the future.
I actually think this is a great idea for an applied class. I just posted a blog about having my student explain the steps they take to solve problem in my class. I found when they did this after my lesson and I put them into groups to explain what they wrote to each other, this helped them retain more information and allowed then to apply the knowledge they in a different way. I found that this made students really think about what they were doing to solve the problems they had to solve. I then incorporated this with an assignment were they were given a problem and had to orally answer it for the evaluation. They loved it to be able to talk and explain what they were thinking. I will definitely try to try this on an actual test. My main concern would be the time issue for the test.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of incorporating a verbal assessment in the math classroom. I am unsure about including this during a test period as it may be hard for the other students to focus if someone else is discussing numbers, but if there was time elsewhere in the course, I like this idea. When I have a teacher candidate teaching a block, I try to mini conference with a couple of students each day to have them try a few questions for me. This gives me the chance to check-in and see how they are moving through the course and if we have any gaps, we need to fill in. Including this as more of a formal summative assessment is a good idea I hadn’t considered – thank you!
ReplyDelete